Raise funds for the Book Bus climbing Mt Toubkal in Morocco

Do you fancy a challenge but don't have the time (or inclination) to scale Everest?

Then consider The Book Bus's charity trek to the summit of North Africa's highest mountain....you'll only have to take two days off work!

The Toubkal trek is an extended mountain walk that lasts 3 days. There will be full support from local staff: tents, backpacks and all expedition equipment will be carried on mules. You will be carrying a daypack whilst walking. Walking days involve 6 to 8 hours on the trail; climate, altitude and remoteness may play a part in the challenge.
Previous trekking experience is not essential but you must have a good level of walking fitness.

The details

22nd September - 25th September

This trek is presented at “cost” of £485.

Each person who joins the trek pledges to raise a minimum of £500 (there is no maximum!) to help fund the Book Buses. You may either pay your own trek cost and then raise £500 as a donation to Book Bus.
Or Charity Commission rules allow you to raise  £485 + £500 in sponsorship, so long as you make it clear to your donors that you are doing so..

For more information - Toubkal Charity Climb

The Book Bus with Lake of Stars

This Sunday - 20th February, The Book Bus will be at Market Club in London town.

Market Club is a new kind of free event for the leading East London Arts Centre that will brighten up your Sundays.

The finest festival team in the world (Lake of Stars) are kicking off the New Year moving their Wednesday night sessions to monthly Sunday celebrations of art, music, film, markets and Olympic sports. Live music comes from rising indie-folk star Sam Sallon plus reggae/dub outfit Scubaroots with DJ sets from Fabric’s Ali B, Jamie A, Kid Blue and Young Offenders.

Sundays in Shoreditch are alive from Brick Lane, Spitalfields and Columbia Rd markets – get indoors with the Market Club’s mini market selling everything from books to music to a sample sale from Fenchurch.

If you find yourself in the eastend of London this Sunday..pop in and say hello!

Market Club
RICH MIX
35 - 47 Bethnal Green Road,
London, E1 6LA

The Book Bus in the Press

Wanderlust magazine journalist Ed Stocker spent 2 weeks on the Book Bus in Ecuador last year. You can read about Ed's experiences in the February issue of Wanderlust available at WH Smiths and other large stationary stores.

The Book Bus in Zambia features in a Guardian article by Sarah Gilbert. Click here to read about her time on board the Book Bus in Livingstone

A tale of understanding from Ecuador

The Book Bus in Píntag

A smile from a child that has been beaten, a smile from a child that has lost 
his mum, a smile from a child that hasn’t had reason to smile in years is what 
the members of the BOOK BUS need to feel good. For a moment a smile from a child 
with dirt in his face and a sparkle of sadness in his eyes might steal a tear 
from the BOOK BUS volunteers. A small school in Píntag, a small town close to 
Valle de los Chillos, was the school that invited the BOOK BUS members to have 
this wonderful experience. Small beautiful smiles to bigger ones were present, 
all ages from 3 to 13, all sitting down with their heads up showing a lot of 
respect and humbleness. Their faces were like carved by the hands of god, they 
had eyes that had a hope and plead of some love. Each member of the BOOK BUS had 
a moment to read and have a pleasant moment with these children. The way how the 
books have a connection with the children is something that no scientist or 
doctor can explain. Their imagination bursts and gives away a dream, monkeys, 
fishes swimming in the dark seas and eagles overflying the clouds in a cold 
winter are some of the images that these children get in their small and curious 
minds.  Juanita Neira the godmother of the BOOK BUS shared this moment with us. 
An activity that incorporated all the students and the BOOK BUS was something 
that showed how a story can be made from our hearts. This experience made us 
open our eyes and see the reality of how many children right next to us need a 
book and also some love to have a smile painted in their faces.

Jaime Andrés Durán (Year 12)
Jaime is a pupil at the British School in Quito which participates in the 
BISEE Book Bus school2school exchange programme in Ecuador

The Book Bus makes a splash in London

The Book Bus mounted a stand at the recent Destinations Travel Exhibition in London's Earls Court. This was our first exposure at this type of event and, because many of the visitors to our stand had never heard about us before, we were able to spread the word to a whole new audience. Accolades ranged from "Wow!" to "best travel event I've seen at the whole show".  Clearly the concept of travelling to support a worthy cause grabs the imagination and we look forward to welcoming some of our show stand visitors onto the Book Bus in the near future.

As ever, it's the efforts of our volunteers who keep the Book Bus wheels turning and we're grateful to those who supported us on the stand during the show.  A big thanks goes to Jean, Vicky, Hillary, Raquel, Glenn, Ellie, Kate and Seth.

The Book Bus Ecuador

Launched in March 2010, the BISEE Book Bus Ecuador has already worked with over 1800 children in 4 provinces: Manab’, Chimborazo, Napo and Pichincha.

During its first year, the bus has proved extremely popular with pupils and is always greeted with lots of smiles, waving and shouting! We have been working with primary school children (5-12 years) in small groups, reading stories together, letting children choose their own story to read alone and doing activities to improve children’s imagination. Imagination, creativity and curiosity are essential for children to get the most out of the stories, and are sadly lacking in rural parts of Ecuador visited by the bus. Although the literacy rate is quite high, children have no access to story books; their teachers don’t like reading and see no benefit in reading to the children. Next year we hope to work more closely with the teachers so that the children continue to benefit when the bus has moved on.

As well as working with the schools in the mornings, in the afternoons the bus is parked in the street and opens its doors to any child who wants to come onboard and read with us. We often get the same children come every day; these children have chosen to give up their free time to come and read stories, rather than having to as part of their school day.

In Chimborazo, when we found some children weren’t able to come some afternoons because they had homework to do, we decided to help them in the bus after reading. A lot of children in this area live with grandparents (who are often illiterate), as their parents have moved to the cities to find work. These children have no help with their homework, and one boy we worked with had failed many school years because he had no extra support. He was 11 and could barely read and write. it took a while for him to trust us enough to feel able to bring his homework as he was used to being laughed at for being so behind. In the month he worked with us his confidence soared and he started playing with the other children who came on the bus, who stopped making fun of him when they realised he was trying to learn.

Another girl we worked with also lived with her grandparents. She needed 8 sheets of plain A4 paper to do her homework, it only cost about 20 cents but her grandparents didn’t have the money; they were hoping to get it the day before the work was due in leaving her one evening to do all 8 pages of work. When we offered to give her the 8 sheets she needed the look of joy and relief on her face was amazing.

These are just two stories from two of the children we worked with this year. Every child has their own story to tell; when you walk around the market and see hundreds of children working to sell food or clothes you realise that every one of those has a different story. The only way out of poverty for these children is education, and if the Book Bus can inspire some of them through reading, we can really make a difference to their futures.

Annelisa Sadler
BISEE Book Bus volunteer 2010

Helen's Book Bus experience in Zambia

My name is Helen, I am 29-years-old. I volunteered with the Book Bus in May and June of 2009. The Book Bus is a wonderful project based in Livingstone, Zambia. We visited five different schools in the Livingstone area, one for each day of the school week. The Book Bus is a Livingstone icon - everybody knows the Book Bus!     


Volunteering with the Book Bus is such a rewarding experience. I remember one of my fellow volunteers commenting after my first day that she had never seen anyone smile so much! The children are amazing, so keen to learn and so happy that you have taken the time to help them. They are often packed sixty to a class so any individual attention you can give them is really appreciated. 
 
In a typical day I would take four small groups for an hour each, grades four to seven. The work was also challenging at times as we would work with 8-year-olds who had excellent reading skills as well as 16-year-olds who could hardly read at all. Creativity, flexibility and patience are great skills to have as every group is different. In the lessons we would usually read together, talk about what they had read and do an activity based around the story and themes of the book, usually arts and crafts (drawing, making masks etc) or play games to further their understanding (football, netball, word games etc). Sometimes we would work on little projects together that would continue over into the next weeks lesson! The children especially liked 'The Banana Song'!  


One of the best things about volunteering with the Book Bus for me, was the wonderful people I met. I made some great friends, my fellow volunteers, the teachers and of course the children. The support I had from the Book Bus and VentureCo staff was great, both pre-departure and whilst in Zambia.
 
Zambia is a wonderful country and in our free time we explored the lovely town of Livingstone and the surrounding areas. There are so many things to do - see Victoria Falls aka Mosi-o-Tunya (‘the smoke that thunders’ - and it really does), go white water rafting and kayaking on the mighty Zambezi river, pet lions and cheetahs, walk to the Devil's Pool, bungi jump 111m from the Zim-Zam bridge, the second highest bunji in the world (if you're brave enough – I’m not), see hippos and giraffes on a sunset cruise, take high tea at The Royal Livingstone and visit Chobe National Park in Botswana, the elephant viewing there is amazing! 


I can’t wait to go back again!!

HELEN DAVIES